LEROY INGLES

Douglas Martin, New York Times

Published 4:00 am, Monday, April 30, 2001

2001-04-30 04:00:00 PDT Olympia, Wash. -- Leroy Ingles, the first chief petty officer on the U.S. Navy's first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus, died April 12 in a nursing home in Olympia. He was 84.

He died of asbestosis, his wife, Wynona, said.

As chief of boat, Mr. Ingles was assistant to the Nautilus' executive officer and had the most authority of any enlisted man on board. He was a big, friendly man who called the sailors "my kids." They called him Pappy Ingles.

"He was father confessor to all the kids," said Adm. Kenneth Carr, who served on the Nautilus as a young lieutenant and went on to command all the submarines in the Atlantic Fleet before becoming chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

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In 1954, Mr. Ingles was personally selected as the chief of boat aboard the Nautilus by Adm. Hyman Rickover, who led the program to develop submarines powered by nuclear reactors.

Mr. Ingles was on the Nautilus on Jan. 17, 1955, when the submarine's first commanding officer, Cmdr. Eugene P. Wilkinson, ordered all lines cast off and radioed the historic message, "Under way on nuclear power."

The Nautilus' shakedown cruise to Puerto Rico set records for underwater speed and time spent submerged.

Mr. Ingles was born in Rushville, Ill., in 1916. In the second grade, his wife said, he told his teacher that his ambition was to be a torpedo man on a submarine. But when he tried to enlist in the Navy at 18, the recruiter turned him down, telling him he had a crooked back.

He went down the hall to an Army recruiter, who arranged an immediate physical.

Mr. Ingles was in the Army for three years. He applied to the Navy again in 1938. By then, the Navy was seeking more sailors and accepted him.

His first assignment was on the aircraft carrier Saratoga. His next was on the Sturgeon, his first submarine. During World War II, he was on another submarine, the Paddle.

After the war, he was assigned to a succession of submarines and was promoted to chief warrant officer. After two years, he decided he would rather be an enlisted man and asked to be demoted to chief petty officer.

In 1954, he applied to be chief of the first atomic submarine. He was thrilled when he learned Rickover would interview him.

Rickover, a famously difficult interviewer, personally examined all officers, as well as anybody who would be involved with the nuclear reactor and candidates for the chief of boat. A favorite question for naval officers was: If Washington decided to eliminate the officer or a street cleaner, whom would it save?

Most candidates, suspecting that the admiral wanted modesty, would say the street cleaner. Rickover would then slam his fist down and exclaim: "No! Anyone can sweep the streets, but the street cleaner cannot do the job of a naval officer," Norman Polmard wrote in his book "Atomic Submarines."

Mr. Ingles' interview ended with the admiral ordering him to get "the hell out" of his office. A few days later, his phone rang. The caller was Rickover, who said, "Let me be the first to congratulate you."

Mr. Ingles served on the Nautilus for about three years, before being transferred to other submarines, including the Theodore Roosevelt. In 1958, when the Navy created a new rank, master chief petty officer, his rank changed from chief torpedo man to master chief torpedo man, making him the first to hold that rank.

He retired after 30 years of military service, 27 of them in the Navy, to work at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. He later transferred to a new submarine base at Bangor, Wash., where he worked as a missile assembler for Lockheed.